[Featured image: Marines raise the Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi. Pictured are Sgt. Michael Strank, Cpl. Harlon Block, and Private First Class Franklin Sousley, who will all be killed in action over the next few days, and surviving the battle are Corporals Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes, and Harold Schultz. Two men who had been mistakenly identified in Joe Rosenthal’s iconic photograph are Sgt. Hank Hansen and Corpsman John Bradley, who participated in the raising of a smaller flag some 90 minutes earlier. (U.S. Navy photo)]
1778: Baron Friedrich von Steuben, a Prussian Army officer – arguably the father of American drill instructors – arrives at Valley Forge with the task of whipping the Continental Army into shape.
1836: The advance elements of a 4,000-plus-man Mexican army under the command of Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna begin the siege of the isolated Texas Army garrison at the Alamo mission near (now part of present-day) San Antonio, Texas, during the Texas War of Independence.
The Alamo’s approximately 200-man garrison will be wiped out nearly to a man when the Mexicans storm the mission on March 6.
1942: The Japanese submarine I-17 surfaces off the Santa Barbara (Calif.) Coast and attacks the Ellwood Oil Field. The sub’s 5.5-inch gun inflicts minimal damage, but the incident causes an invasion scare along the Pacific coast and leads to the internment of Japanese-American citizens.
1945: After several days of savage fighting, U.S. Marines capture the summit of Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima. Just after 10:30 a.m., a small flag is raised on Suribachi. But an officer orders a larger flag be hoisted so that it might be seen from the far end of the island.
1991: A Marine patrol engages a group of 12 Iraqi tanks, destroying four with TOW missiles. The surviving tanks flee, but are targeted by artillery and air support. The Pentagon announces that by this date 1,685 Iraqi tanks, 925 armored vehicles, and 1,450 artillery pieces have been destroyed.
Troop movements for the ground campaign during Operation DESERT STORM. Click image to view full-size version. (U.S. Army file)
In defiance of their mandate to withdraw from Kuwait within 24 hours, Iraq announces “We will never surrender. A lot of Americans will die.” In one day, the ground campaign of Operation DESERT STORM will begin. And in just 100 hours, it will be over.
